Sixty-Fifth Theory [Video]

[i_speak_softly]

[The video feed clicks on, and Don looks thoughtfully at the camera for a moment before speaking.]

Another Christmas in Luceti.

[His tone is direct, just stating a fact, but somewhere behind it is a note of melancholy.]

This is my third. All of them have been in this house. All of them have been with different people.

[He slides back from the journal, revealing a corner of his winter room. He's been gradually moving into it over the past week, and has more or less taken up residence now.]

I've seen a lot of people come and go. There probably aren't many left who remember when Luceti didn't have electricity.

[He picks up some small bit of tech and squints at it.]

When I arrived here, the drafts were just starting. There were no missions. The Battle Dome didn't exist. We didn't have a farm and there was a desert where the ocean is now.

[He carefully threads a length of wire through a hole in the tech part.]

The buildings were shorter. Some of the stores and restaurants weren't open. [A pause.] I think I'm forgetting things...

[The wire slides through, and he knots the loose ends to form a loop.]

Does anyone remember other things that have changed? Or, does anyone want a history lesson? I'll be here all day.

Comments

[semper_cogitans]

[Robert understands this feeling all too well. It's the same uprooted, drifting feeling he had at first in Luceti, without the scientific community to back him.]

What did you do...?

[i_speak_softly]

[Don smiles awkwardly - he's never told Robert about this before.]

Well... a few days after I arrived here, I went on a date.

[semper_cogitans]

[Oh, this is interesting.]

With whom...? [He doesn't seem upset, at least? Curious, mostly.]

[i_speak_softly]

[The innocent smile grows a little wider.]

With Winry.

[semper_cogitans]

[Well then.]

What did you... do? [Not accusatory. He still sounds like he's asking about any other neutral topic. But part of him does... wonder.]

[i_speak_softly]

She showed me how to check out library books and how to make filters on the journal. She gave me some of her blueprints for automail. We ... talked.

[semper_cogitans]

[... Robert smiles almost nostalgically at this.]

... Fascinating that... one of our first meetings was... also at the library.

[And Don showed Robert how to take library books out. Seems like the library is a good place to pick up nerds.]

... Talked...?

[i_speak_softly]

[Maybe Don won't tell Robert the whole history of how he met Winry.]

[He shrugs.]

Talked. She offered to make me a prosthetic limb, if I ever needed one.

[semper_cogitans]

[Aw, Don, you don't need to hide your secret library trysts.]

Let us... hope that is never necessary.

[Getting off that topic for the time being...]

What else happened at that time, if... you can recall?

[i_speak_softly]

There was a town meeting, to talk about the war that had just been announced. That was the beginning of the drafts. Professor Sage organized the meeting; she's been here longer than I have.

[semper_cogitans]

[The beginning of the drafts... Robert makes a small, wondering sound.]

... Were there... a-any attacks before this that... Luceti was made aware of?

[i_speak_softly]

Um... I heard there was an invasion of the village, but I don't know much about it. I'm no expert on the history of the war either.

[semper_cogitans]

I feel that... much of it, we Lucetians are... not privy to. [For whatever reasons. He still doesn't really understand war politics very much, honestly.]

... how did you... c-cope, without electricity for so long...?

[i_speak_softly]

Delusional belief that I could fix it. Which maybe was enough, because electricity arrived only a few weeks after I did.

[semper_cogitans]

[This sounds like a great relief to Robert. Unfortunately a lot of people didn't agree.]

How was it initially instated, if... you remember...?

[i_speak_softly]

It just happened. You turned around, and suddenly your icebox was a real refrigerator. With all the food still in it.

[semper_cogitans]

[...]

... That... s-sounds alarming.

[i_speak_softly]

[He shrugs casually, and picks up a random tech bit from his pile.]

I was going a little insane and would have been happy to get electricity by any means. Do you want to sit here talking about it, or can we decorate some Christmas trees?

[semper_cogitans]

[Christmas trees, right. He remembers that concept, but the idea is still a somewhat... uncomfortable prospect for him.]

... How do you propose we do that?

[i_speak_softly]

[He gestures around the room.]

Trees. Christmas ornaments. I think an engineer and an astrobiologist can figure this one out.

[semper_cogitans]

[... Well. Robert gives the paopu fruit saplings another once-over, as well as the other plants he's festooned the area with.]

... Would young trees be... appropriate?

[i_speak_softly]

I think they're acceptable. [He offers Robert an origami figure.]

[semper_cogitans]

[Well, then.

Robert takes the little figure in hand, takes one of the slender branches of the abdomen-high tree in hand, and nestles it delicately in the crook of the tree.]

... It looks... beautiful.

[i_speak_softly]

[Don kneels beside the chosen tree, and carefully hangs a gadget-bauble from a branch.]

Merry Christmas, Professor Hastings.

[semper_cogitans]

[The young, tropical tree is probably as far from the archetypical "Christmas tree" as one can get.

Somehow, it still seems strangely fitting.]

... Merry Christmas... [A pause. Why is Don calling him something so unusual?

He stops midway through his sentence and gives his partner a questioning look.]